Adam Scott, of Australia, gets a club from caddie Steve Williams Photo: AP

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JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Show up, keep up, shut up.

This is the universal unspoken caddie mantra on the PGA Tour.

While it might not be the most complimentary of job descriptions, it has come very much into focus since Steve Williams’ comical public display of petty vengeance Sunday at Firestone, where he caddied for Adam Scott’s victory and genuflected his way around the grounds afterward as if he’d just drained the winning putt.

Williams’ giddy rip job of Tiger Woods, his former boss who fired him recently after more than 12 years together, is still the talk of golf.

Even with the PGA Championship set to begin tomorrow at the Atlanta Athletic Club, there was still a buzz about Williams’ outlandish, self-absorbed behavior swirling around the place yesterday.

“What an idiot,” one prominent PGA Tour caddie told The Post. “I can’t believe what he did. Pathetic. Why can’t you just come out and go on about how proud you are of Adam, say how great he played and that it ‘meant a lot to me,’ and be done with it?”

That was the sentiment of several caddies The Post spoke to about Williams — the fact that he took attention away from his player.

Barring some circumstances, such as their player winning a big tournament or quietly discussing what clubs their player hit on some shots or how their man is playing, PGA Tour caddies are meant to be seen and heard only by their player.

Williams’ obvious intention on Sunday was to be seen and heard ’round the world — especially by Woods.

David Duval’s caddie, Ron Levin, who’s been looping on the PGA Tour since he was 17, working for Jack Nicklaus as a youth and Todd Hamilton when he won the 2004 British Open, said he’s known Williams for years and likes him, but said he was way over the top with his celebration.

“Obviously, he was pretty emotional and Steve carries his emotions on his sleeve,” Levin told The Post yesterday. “Maybe that wasn’t a great time to say what he said. That’s what he believes, but unfortunately I don’t think the rest of us would have approached it that way.”

Williams, who was trying to distance himself from the incident, told the Associated Press he understood “where players are coming from.” But he added that he was “a little upset by what some of them said because they have no idea what I’ve been through. But I didn’t mean to cause anyone harm. There was just a lot of emotion.”

Luke Donald said he didn’t have a problem with Williams letting his emotions out and speaking his mind. He had a problem with Williams’ taking attention away from Scott.

“I think Stevie was given the opportunity to talk and he had the right to say what he wanted to say,” Donald said. “The only disappointing thing that I found personally from it was there was no talk of how pleased he was about Adam winning. It was a little bit deflected away from Adam winning, and obviously the caddie does play an important role, but I think if he had mentioned something about Adam, this wouldn’t have been an issue.”

Lee Westwood found himself bothered that CBS even put Williams on TV for an interview.

“I thought there was no relevance to the interview other than to have a good dig at Tiger Woods in the ribs, putting [Williams] on TV,” Westwood said.

The low-key Scott said he had a little “chat about the whole thing” with Williams and he was typically diplomatic.

“I certainly don’t think that was his intention to steal my moment at all,” Scott said. “He said that was not his intention at all to do that. But he was asked a question and he gave an honest answer. So I said that’s fair enough. Hopefully we’ll just go and let our clubs do the talking for the rest of the week now.”